The
FIRST person ever buried on the grounds which would become Arlington National
Cemetery. She was a cousin of Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, wife of George
Washington Parke Custis, the builder of Arlington. She died in 1828
and buried on the estate in what would become Section 45.

Grave stone inscription:

"In the memory of Mrs. Mary Randolph,Her intrinsic worth needs no eulogium.The deceased was bornThe 9th of August, 1762at Amphill near Richmond, VirginiaAnd died the 23rd of January 1828In Washington City a victim to maternal love
and duty."
There is an unusual story about Mrs. Randolph, so I will
begin her story with her gravesite at Arlington House, formerly known as
the Custis Mansion and currently the site of Arlington National Cemetery.

By 1929 her name was forgotten as noted by
Washington journalist, Margaret Husted, in the Washington Star. The article
stated that workers for the War Department, which administered Arlington
National Cemetery and Arlington House, became curious about the grave of
"Mrs. Mary Randolph". The grave, which is located one hundred feet north
of the Custis mansion, was noticed as renovation to the house began. No
one working on the project knew who she was or why she had been buried
there. Her gravestone stated that she was born on August 9, 1762, at Ampthill
(near Richmond, Virginia) and she died on January 23, 1828 in Washington
City.

After the story was published, Mrs. Randolph's
descendants identified the mysterious lady. She was the cousin of George
Washington Parke Custis and the godmother of his daughter, Mary Randolph
Custis, who married Robert E. Lee. Mary Randolph was the first person ever
buried on the grounds of what would become Arlington National Cemetery.
Her tombstone inscription reads: "Her intrinsic worth needs no eulogium.
The deceased was a victim to maternal love and duty. As a tribute of filial
gratitude this monument is dedicated to her exhaulted virtue by her youngest
son". Her youngest son, Burwell Randolph, had suffered a crippling fall
while in the Navy. He declared that she had sacrificed her life in the
care of his.

Mary was born at Ampthill, the plantation of
her maternal grandparents in Chesterfield County, and now the site of the
Dupont Company. (The house was dismantled and moved to Richmond in 1929.)
Mary Randolph was a member of the Virginia elite, with roots extending
back to the colony’s formative years. As the eldest of thirteen children
of Thomas Mann and Ann Cary Randolph of Tuckahoe in Goochland County, she
grew up surrounded with all the wealth and comforts enjoyed by families
in the plantation homes. A tutor provided formal education for Mary and
her siblings.

Along with her formal education, Mary Randolph
was trained in proper household management practices, a quality expected
of upper-class women of the time. Women were expected to supervise large
manor houses with supporting buildings and numerous servants. "Mary Randolph:
A Chesterfield County role model for women of the 19th century", states
that women were relegated to secondary positions within the family hierarchy,
but in truth they were the mainspring that kept the household running.
Women of this period had numerous responsibilities for the household supported
by a formable knowledge of food preservation and preparation and elegant
entertaining. This knowledge was important throughout Mary Randolph's adult
life.

Mary wed David Meade Randolph of Presque Isle,
Chesterfield County (a first cousin once removed) in December 1780. He
was known as an outstanding farmer and noted inventor. He served as a captain
in the Revolutionary War and was later appointed as a United States Marshal
(a federal court official) for Virginia by President Washington. It is
believed that Mr. Randolph's cousin, Thomas Jefferson, endorsed the appointment.
The couple produced eight children and four survived to adulthood: Richard,
William Beverly, David Meade and Burwell Starke.

Much of the land that made up the 750 acre
plantation was swampy and therefore a health hazard. The family left the
Presque Isle plantation to live in Richmond. They built a brick home at
Fifth and Main Streets in Richmond. The home, named "Moldavia", became
the center of Federalist society. Along with the Marshalls, the Wickhams,
the Chevallies and other prominent Richmond families, the Randolphs established
a model for fashionable social life. With Mary's knowledge of food and
entertaining, invitations to dine in the Randolph home were coveted. Mary's
skills as a hostess and cook were well known in the Richmond area. In fact,
her reputation was so widespread that during the slave insurrection near
Richmond in 1800, the leader "General" Gabriel announced that he would
spare her life so that she could become his cook.

In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson removed
David Randolph, an outspoken Federalist, from office as a United States
Marshall. Although the two men were cousins, they were on opposite sides
politically and kinship proved less important than party ties. Losing the
court position in combination with other business reversals, contributed
to the decline of Randolph's fortune. His removal from office coincided
with a ruinous fall in tobacco prices and a resulting recession in 1800-1802.
David and Mary found that they had to make severe cutbacks in their household,
which had not been an economical one. The Randolphs offered sundry lots
and tenements in Richmond for sale. They listed Moldavia for sale between
1802 and 1805 and moved into a rented house. There are two conflicting
stories on who purchased the house. According to Margaret Husted, John
Allan, foster father of Edgar Allan Poe purchased Moldavia, however Sterling
Anderson reported that Joseph Gallego, the owner of Gallego Flour Mills,
purchased the home.

Mary Randolph took an unorthodox step for an
upper-class woman so that her family could continue to enjoy their accustomed
standard of living. In March 1808, she advertised in the Richmond Virginia
Gazette that she was opening a boarding house for ladies and gentlemen.
Martha Jefferson Randolph, Mary's sister-in-law, was not optimistic about
the outcome of this new venture. Martha wrote her father "'Sister Randolph'--whose
house servants had been saved, at least temporarily, through a prior mortgage--had
"opened a boarding house in Richmond, but... has not a single boarder yet.'".
Martha believed 'the ruin of the family is still extending itself daily.'"
Despite these doubts, Mary achieved success in her enterprise. Dubbed "the
Queen", she attracted, " as many subjects as her domain could accommodate.
There were few more festive boards... wit, humor and good fellowship prevailed,
but excess rarely".

It is interesting to note that all the cookery
at that time was done in kitchens that had changed little over the centuries.
In Virginia, the kitchen was typically a separate building for reasons
of safety, summer heat and the smells from the kitchen. The heart of the
kitchen was a large fireplace where meat was roasted and cauldrons of water
and broth simmered most of the day. Swinging cranes and various devices
made to control temperature and the cooking processes were used. The Dutch
oven and the chafing dish were found in most kitchens. The brick oven used
for baking was located next to the fireplace. A salamander was used to
move baked products around in the oven and it could also be heated and
held over food for browning. Karen Hess stated that Mrs. Randolph was a
fine practitioner who knew her way about the kitchen but the actual cooking
and toil fell to the servants.

In the same year that Mary opened her boarding
house, David became an agent for Henry Heth in the operation of the Black
Heth Coal Mines near Midlothian. David traveled to England and Wales to
study their mining operations and to improve those in the Black Heth Mines.
Always interested in turning a profit, David received patents in 1815 for
his improvements in shipbuilding and candle making and in 1821 for improvements
in drawing liquor. For his relative, George Washington Parke Curtis, he
invented a special compound to waterproof Arlington, the Custis mansion.
Mrs. Randolph is said to have invented an icebox, however someone else
saw it and patented it in his own name.

By 1819, the couple, in advancing years, gave
up their business enterprises and moved to Washington, D. C. to live with
their son, William Beverley Randolph. At this residence, Mary decided to
compile her culinary knowledge and her cookbook was published in 1824.
In her preface to The Virginia Housewife, Mrs. Randolph points out the
lack of clear-cut instructions in the cookbooks of that time. "The difficulties
I encountered when I first entered on the duties of a house-keeping life,
from the want of books sufficiently clear and concise to impart knowledge
to a Tyro, compelled me to study the subject, and by actual experiment
to reduce everything in the culinary line, to proper weights and measures."
She also offered three rules for running a household: "Let everything be
done at the proper time, keep everything in its proper place, and put everything
to its proper use." At the beginning of his article, "'Queen Molly' and
the Virginia Housewife" Sterling Anderson quoted Mrs. Randolph with this
statement: "The government of a family bears a Lilliputian resemblance
to the government of a nation. The contents of the Treasury must be know,
and great care taken to keep the expenditures from being equal to the receipts."
Mrs. Randolph's philosophy is illustrated in additional quotes from Anderson's
article: "The prosperity and happiness of a family depend greatly on the
order and the regularity established in it. Management is an art that may
be acquired by every woman of good sense and tolerable memory."

Mrs. Randolph's cookbook was written especially
for Virginia cooks. Mrs. Husted reported that during the colonial period
wealthy families imported cookbooks from England, but these books ignored
the special requirements of the New World. Mrs. Randolph's book proves
that regional food preferences were well established by the first quarter
of the 19th century. She included recipes for dishes that have remained
southern favorites, such as "toasting ham"; baking, roasting or broiling
of shad, boiling turnip tops "with bacon in the Virginia style"; sweet
potato pudding; cornmeal bread; batter cakes; and batter bread. Thomas
Jefferson's granddaughter, Virginia Randolph Trist, had a copy of the manuscript
collection of recipes of Martha Jefferson Randolph and the collection contained
over fifty recipes from Mary Randolph's cookbook. Husted also stated The
Virginia Housewife was surprisingly modern. Absent were the elaborate dishes
of the 18th century cookbooks and the overwhelming array of foods featured
on English bills of fare. Mrs. Randolph believed that the quality of prepared
food, not its great variety, was important. She wrote that: "Profusion
is not elegance". Recipes for breads and hot cakes occupy a large section
of Mary Randolph's book. She provides recipes for battercakes containing
small hominy, cornmeal, butter, eggs and milk, which were baked on a griddle
or in "woffle irons". A popular recipe was the one for Apoquiniminc Cakes
or beaten biscuits.

Mrs. Randolph also promoted the charm of gathering
and preparing garden-fresh vegetables. It was not on her recommendation
that a later generation of southern cooks followed the ruinous practice
of cooking vegetable endlessly. She stressed repeatedly that vegetables
must be cooked only to the point of being tender. Mrs. Randolph advocated
the common practice of using herbs, spices and wines in cooking. Her recipe
for apple fritters calls for slices of apple marinated in a combination
of brandy, white wine, sugar cinnamon, and lemon rind.

Cookbooks, with few exceptions, are addressed
to housewives in comfortable circumstances. The poor, with lean larders,
have little use for recipes that assume a plentiful supply of ingredients.
The Virginia Housewife was intended for those who enjoyed the bounty of
plantation life. Mrs. Randolph did have an eye for economy, for example,
she offered several ways of using bread in simple family desserts such
as bread pudding and bread fritters. In her article, Margaret Husted stated
that in spite of Mary Randolph's hostility to Thomas Jefferson for ousting
her husband from office, she was not reluctant to accept vanilla beans
and macaroni products, which were unknown in Virginia until Jefferson introduced
them. Recipes for ice cream were also included in her book. Mrs. Randolph
concluded her cookbook with various domestic hints such as how to make
starch, soap, and blacking. She also included directions for cleaning knives,
forks and silver utensils. The recipe for an early room deodorizer, vinegar
of the four thieves, was also included in the cookbook.

In Virginia, Mary Randolph's cookbook has become
synonymous with fine cuisine. Karen Hess, a culinary historian, wrote that
the most influential American cookbook of the 19th century was this book.
The Virginia Housewife was not only acclaimed in Virginia, but many of
the recipes have been copied in cookbooks published all over the United
States. Mrs. Randolph died in 1829 before the full extent of her triumph
was apparent. After her death, her cookbook was published in six editions
over the next three decades. Her son, William Beverly Randolph, copyrighted
the cookbook in 1828. Her recipes showed simplicity of concept; they were
clearly expressed; and they were full of perceptive observations.

Jan Carlton commented that Mary Randolph combined
knowledge of English cooking with native Indian food influences. She reflected
her knowledge by combining the use of regional meats and vegetables with
overall cooking techniques and social grace. Further, she introduces into
her recipes the use of African food ingredients, a knowledge gained from
servants. When Ms Hess reviewed the Virginia Housewife, she remarked that
nothing in the history of early American cookbooks quite prepares us for
the sumptuous cuisine presented. Mrs. Randolph brought her personal flair
to everything she did, but her reputation as Virginia's best cook and the
early success of her work indicates that her cookery was solidly based
in Virginia tradition. Already there was a sophisticated cuisine, a harmonious
interweaving of several food cultures added to the fine cooking of the
17th and 18th centuries. Now there seemed to be an authentic American cuisine.
Mary Randolph:A Chesterfield County (Virginia) role model
for women of the 19th century

The government of a family bears a Lilliputian
resemblance to the government of a nation. The contents of the Treasury
must be known, and great care taken to keep the expenditures from being
equal to the receipts. A regular system must be introduced into each department,
which may be modified until matured, and should then pass into inviolable
law. The grand arcanum of management lies in three simple rules: "Let every
thing be done at the proper time, keep every thing in its proper place,
and put every thing to its proper use."

So began Mary Randolph's preface to The Virginia
Housewife, a cookbook that became so popular it has rarely been out of
print since it was first published in 1824.

Born in 1762 at Ampthill, her grandfather's
Chesterfield County plantation, now the site of the Dupont Company (the
house itself was dismantled and moved to Richmond in 1929), Mary Randolph
was a member of the Virginia elite, with roots extending back to the colony's
formative years. As the eldest child of Thomas Mann and Ann Cary Randolph
of Tuckahoe in Goochland County, she grew up surrounded with all the wealth
and comforts enjoyed by other members of her class. She and her numerous
siblings were tutored by Peter Jefferson, father of the nation's fourth
president, to whom she was related by both blood and marriage.

Along with her formal education, Mary was trained
in the proper household management expected of upperclass women of the
time, women who were brought up to supervise large manor houses with surrounding
support buildings and numerous servants. While women then were relegated
to secondary positions within the family hierarchy, they were in truth
the mainspring that kept the household running. These women had enormous
responsibilities as well as formidable knowledge, part of which was an
awareness of food preparation and elegant entertaining. This knowledge
would sustain Mary Randolph throughout her adult life.

In 1780, Mary married a cousin, David Meade
Randolph, and they settled in Chesterfield County near Bermuda Hundred
at Presquile, a 750-acre plantation that was part of the Randolph family's
extensive property along the James River. While David Randolph saw to the
cultivation of his plantation, gaining a reputation as "the best farmer
in the country," as well as a noted inventor, Mary assumed a conventional
role, supervising the household, entertaining their many guests and acquiring
a reputation as a lively hostess who set an exquisite table. While living
at Presquile, Mary bore four sons.

Over time, life at Presquile, situated along
the swamp lands of the James, proved difficult. According to a contemporary
source, the swamps produced noxious fumes that brought on "frequent and
dangerous diseases. Mr. Randolph is himself very sickly, and his young
and amiable wife has not enjoyed one month of good health since she first
came to live on this plantation." By 1798, the family had moved to Richmond,
where they built a house, christened "Moldavia" (a combination of their
two given names) by a friend. Presquile was sold out of the Randolph family
three years later.

Richmond welcomed the young couple. Mary, already
well known for her accomplishments, "charming manners, and ... masculine
mind," quickly established a reputation as one of the city's leading hostesses.
As the United States marshal of Virginia under two administrations (that
of George Washington and John Adams), David gained attention as an outspoken
Federalist, and Moldavia became a center for Federalist society. The Randolphs
entertained lavishly. With Mary's knowledge of fine food and entertaining,
invitations to dine at the Randolphs' table were coveted.

Mary's skills as hostess and cook were so well
known, in fact, that they were brought to the attention of Gabriel Prosser,
a slave who in 1800 attempted an unsuccessful revolt in northern Henrico
County and Richmond. Supposedly, his plans included wiping out as much
of the area's white population as possible, but according to local legend,
Mary Randolph would have been spared to serve as Prosser's queen -- and
his cook! Perhaps this is when she acquired the nickname, "Queen Molly,"
by which she was affectionately known to her friends.

Thomas Jefferson's election to the presidency
in 1800 marked the end of David Meade Randolph's career as federal marshal.
The two men were on opposite sides of the political fence and Jefferson
removed Randolph from office immediately after his inauguration. This,
along with business reversals, caused a rapid decline in the Randolphs'
fortunes and by 1802, they had listed Moldavia for sale.

Within a few years, their financial situation
had become critical, and Mary stepped in. She was determined to see her
family taken care of, and took what was then a highly unorthodox step for
an upperclass woman. In March, 1808, an advertisement appeared in The Richmond
Virginia Gazette: "Mrs. RANDOLPH Has established a Boarding House in Cary
Street, for the accommodation of Ladies and Gentlemen. She has comfortable
chambers, and a stable well supplied for a few Horses." Putting her abilities
as a hostess together with her knowledge of good food and elegant presentation,
Mary achieved instant success. The Randolphs' boarding house was considered
a place where "wit, humor, and good-fellowship prevailed, but excess rarely."

By 1819, the Randolphs had given up their business
enterprise and moved to Washington, where they lived with one of their
sons. There, Mary Randolph decided to compile her culinary knowledge to
paper, and in 1824, her book, The Virginia Housewife, was published. It
won immediate success: a second addition followed within a year, and Mary
was preparing yet another when she died in January, 1828.

With Mary's advanced culinary knowledge, her
splendid recipes, and detailed advice to housewives, the book remained
a standby, going into many editions throughout the 19th century. It continues
to appear in facsimile even today.

While The Virginia Housewife is seen by some
as a quaint reminder of culinary traditions long gone by, the book is viewed
by today's social historians as an important historical document in which
dining habits of the Virginia elite can be examined. As noted culinary
historian, Karen Hess, wrote, "The most influential American cookbook of
the 19th century was The Virginia Housewife ... There are those who regard
it as the finest book ever to have come out of the American kitchen, and
a case may be made for considering it to be the earliest full-blown American
cookbook. [it] may be said to document the cookery of the early days of
our republic."

Chesterfield County can take pride in claiming
Mary Randolph as a native daughter, an exemplary woman, and role model.
Her courage and determination, her willingness to step off her pedestal
to see that her family survived, and her ability to plunge into the world
of business, mark her as a pioneer and role model to those who followed.
She wrote "The Virginia Housewife," considered to be the
first cookbook publoiched in America: